Shooting is a shock to the new Bernal Heights

Marianne Costantinou, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 15, 1999

1999-06-15 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- If this were a decade ago, news of a shooting inside a bar on Bernal Heights' main drag, Cortland Avenue, would hardly have been a shock. But then, those were the days of open drug sales, of gangs and drive-by shootings.

Today, Cortland Avenue is a mix of trendy eateries and old-time businesses, from gourmet restaurants and coffeehouses to bodegas and a laundromat. Gone are the corner drug dealers and the gangs, pushed out by community activism and gentrification as San Francisco's crazed housing market has brought money and clout to this once struggling, working-class neighborhood.

So, news Monday that a busboy from one of the newer restaurants had been shot inside a beloved neighborhood bar caused quite a stir along the avenue.

And though residents don't forget that their quaint urban village is in a city and that crime can happen anywhere, their reaction was strictly Small Town, USA.

"Oh my God. That's frightening. Yikes!" said Robert Floodman, 35, the owner of an executive headhunting firm who just bought a $450K, 3-bedroom Edwardian house here two months ago. "Welcome to the neighborhood."

He had been shot once in the chest during an armed robbery gone awry at the Wild Side West bar where he had gone for a nightcap after work, police said.

The robbery was the first in the bar's 22-year history on the block, said Nancy White, 60, a co-owner.

Fuente was shot during an altercation with the two masked robbers who had walked into the bar a few minutes before the 2 a.m. closing, said the bartender, Audrey Howard, 22, who said she had sidled away from behind the bar when she saw one of the robbers walk in carrying a gun.

One of the robbers jumped the bar and tried to open the register, she said. The other went to the 10 or so patrons sitting at the bar, tapping their back pants pockets and demanding their money.

Police say that Fuente was shot when he refused to give up his ring.

To residents, the shooting was especially upsetting because it occurred inside the Wild Side West, a cozy, mellow retreat with a whimsical garden that's known mostly as a lesbian bar but is welcoming to all.

In many ways, the bar is a microcosm of the neighborhood: funky, friendly, mellow, with a mix of gay and straight, artistic and professional, blue-collar and yuppie, regulars and newcomers.

"It's the most unpretentious, friendly place in the world," said Caroline Blair, 43, a filmmaker and City College professor who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years and who often comes to the bar with her boyfriend.

"It's like the best of Bernal Heights."

White, residents and police said they viewed the shooting as an anomaly in what is now described as a relatively low-crime neighborhood.

Most safety worries these days are about stop-sign runners on Cortland, said Tom Walls, 28, a three-year resident who owns Tom's on Cortland hair salon.

In fact, just hours before the shooting, said Sgt. Bill Dyer of the Ingleside Police District that oversees Bernal Heights, the captain was working late sending out a fax to community groups about the latest big crime: a stolen bicycle.

But the shooting does highlight how much the neighborhood has changed in a decade, residents said.

"Nobody would have thought to rob anybody here 15 years ago because they would all have pulled out their guns and shot the robber. That's what you would have found on Cortland at 2 a.m.," said Carren Shagley, a real estate agent who has lived here since 1977.

"It was literally Wild Side West when I showed up," said Vela.

In the 1980s, Cortland was a drug corridor, he said. Gangs from the nearby housing projects would end their feuds with drive-by shootings. Storefronts stood empty.

But residents and merchants demanded that the public phones be removed from Cortland, stymieing drug deals. Police presence was beefed up. Gang outreach programs were formed.

Soon, new businesses and residents moved in, pushed here by more expensive real estate prices in other parts of San Francisco.

Newcomers have found a small-town feel.

"It's very homey over here," said Doug Lederman, 41, a Visa credit card manager who bought a two-bedroom Victorian cottage two years ago for $240,000 that he just had reappraised for $350,000. "I know my neighbors. They introduced themselves. We watch out for each other."

Now the worry is how to keep Bernal Heights flourishing without making it so successful that the old-time artists and working class residents and the mom-and-pop shops can no longer afford to stay.

"Listen," said Jeffrey Kirk, 26, a five-year resident who works at the Goodlife Grocery, an upscale market. "I don't want this to be another Noe Valley."

Along with prosperity, the future of Bernal Heights also holds worry. The robbers are still at large. And was the shooting a sign that Bernal Heights may be a victim of its own success?

"I wonder," said Shagley, "if we're more easy pickings because we're more white-collar."